Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III:
Tertullian: Part I: Chapter I

Chapter I.—The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain.

Our defence requires that we should at this point discuss with you the character of your gods, O ye heathen, fit objects of our pity, 774
appealing even to your own conscience to determine whether they be truly gods, as you would have it supposed, or falsely, as you are unwilling to have proved. 775
Now this is the material part of human error, owing to the wiles of its author, that it is never free from the ignorance of error, 776
whence your guilt is all the greater. Your eyes are open, yet they see not; your ears are unstopped, yet they hear not; though your heart beats, it is yet dull, nor does your mind understand 777
that of which it is cognizant. 778
If indeed the enormous perverseness (of your worship) could 779
be broken up 780
by a single demurrer, we should have our objection ready to hand in the declaration 781
that, as we know all those gods of yours to have been instituted by men, all belief in the true Deity is by this very circumstance brought to nought; 782
because, of course, nothing which some time or other had a beginning can rightly seem to be divine. But the fact is, 783
there are many things by which tenderness of conscience is hardened into the callousness of wilful error. Truth is beleaguered with the vast force (of the enemy), and yet how secure she is in her own inherent strength! And naturally enough 784
when from her very adversaries she gains to her side whomsoever she will, as her friends and protectors, and prostrates the entire host of her assailants. It is therefore against these things that our contest lies—against the institutions of our ancestors, against the authority of tradition, 785
the laws of our governors, and the reasonings of the wise; against antiquity, custom, submission; 786
against precedents, prodigies, miracles,—all which things have had their part in consolidating that spurious 787
system of your gods. Wishing, then, to follow step by step your own commentaries which you have drawn out of your theology of every sort (because the authority of learned men goes further with you in matters of this kind than the testimony of facts), I have taken and abridged the works of Varro; 788
for he in his treatise Concerning Divine Things, collected out of ancient digests, has shown himself a serviceable guide 789
for us. Now, if I inquire of him who were the subtle inventors 790
of the gods, he points to either the philosophers, the peoples, or the poets. For he has made a threefold distinction in classifying the gods: one being the physical class, of which the philosophers treat; another the mythic class, which is the constant burden of 791
the poets; the third, the gentile class, which the nations have adopted each one for itself. When, therefore, the philosophers have ingeniously composed their physical (theology) out of their p. 130own conjectures, when the poets have drawn their mythical from fables, and the (several) nations have forged their gentile (polytheism) according to their own will, where in the world must truth be placed? In the conjectures? Well, but these are only a doubtful conception. In the fables? But they are at best an absurd story. In the popular accounts? 792
This sort of opinion, 793
however, is only promiscuous 794
and municipal. Now all things with the philosophers are uncertain, because of their variation with the poets all is worthless, because immoral; with the nations all is irregular and confused, because dependent on their mere choice. The nature of God, however, if it be the true one with which you are concerned, is of so definite a character as not to be derived from uncertain speculations, 795
nor contaminated with worthless fables, nor determined by promiscuous conceits. It ought indeed to be regarded, as it really is, as certain, entire, universal, because it is in truth the property of all. Now, what god shall I believe? One that has been gauged by vague suspicion? One that history 796
has divulged? One that a community has invented? It would be a far worthier thing if I believed no god, than one which is open to doubt, or full of shame, or the object of arbitrary selection. 797